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About Michael J. Miller

Miller, who was editor-in-chief of PC Magazine from 1991 to 2005, authors this blog for PC Magazine to share his thoughts on PC-related products. No investment advice is offered in this blog. All duties are disclaimed. Miller works separately for a private investment firm which may at any time invest in companies whose products are discussed in this blog, and no disclosure of securities transactions will be made.

Moto X: The Best One-Handed Android Phone?

I've used a number of Android phones lately and the Motorola Moto X stands out.

In part, it's different because it seems so small compared with the other Android phones I've used lately. Now, a 4.7-inch, 1,280-by-720 AMOLED screen isn't small; it's notably bigger than the 4-inch, 1,136-by-640 display on the iPhone 5. But in a world where high-end Android phones are routinely five inches and larger, the Moto X stands out. It doesn't offer the screen size or resolution of the high-end phones, but it does offer one distinct advantage: it fits more easily in one hand. And at 5.1-by-2.6-by-0.4 inches (HWD), it's not all that much larger than an iPhone (4.9-by-2.3-by-0.3 inches).

Motorola made a big deal of how it has an "X8" chipset, which adds two digital signal processors (DSPs), one for "contextual processing" to handle sensors, and another for voice processing, along with the main applications processor, a 1.7GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro phone. This, and some software tweaks, allow for some unique features.

Perhaps the most interesting is what Motorola calls "touchless control," meaning the phone is always listening. Just say "Ok Google Now" (you don't even have to unlock the phone) and it will listen to your commands. You can say "Get Directions" or "What is that song?" and it will respond, assuming it has a data signal. That makes it much easier than having to unlock the phone first, especially if you need hands-free operation, though I admit the "always listening" feature sounds a bit creepy at first.

In my testing, this worked pretty well. Google Now doesn't have the personality of Siri but works for a variety of searches. It still has limitations in the types of questions it can answer and has trouble with some names, but that's true of all the voice assistants on the market. Once you accept that it's always listening, it works quite well.

To take a picture you don't have to unlock the phone or even click a special button. Instead, you can just twist your phone back and forth twice and the camera app opens. It took a few tries to get the hang of it, but once I did, this worked well most of the time. The rest of the phone remains locked so there isn't a security issue. (The same is true for the Google Now app.) Of course, you can always unlock in the usual way and then take a photo.

The basic camera app has been redesigned a bit from the standard Android version in ways that I found make it a bit easier. You can click on the screen to take a photo and hold down your finger to take burst shots. You swipe up to zoom in, swipe left to bring up an arc-shaped menu with options such as HDR, panorama, and slow-mo video recordings (which now all seem to be becoming standard features), and swipe right to see your previous pictures (unless the phone is locked). That makes it nice and simple to use, but at the expense of more detailed controls or some of the more unusual modes you'll find on high-end cameras (such as an "eraser shot" or picture-in-picture, neither of which I find much use for).

It has a 10MP rear-facing camera and a 2MP front-facing one. Motorola has touted its "ClearPixel" camera as being capable of higher ISOs, but in practice I found the camera to be good but not special. In good lighting, I got some very nice photos; sometimes I thought they were better than those with the Galaxy S4 or the iPhone 5; sometimes not quite as good. It performed better than a Galaxy S4 in low-light, but I found the iPhone 5s to be a bit better there.

Another unusual feature is the minimal display that displays when you pick up the phone. It shows the time and some basic information, while not turning on the full processor. For instance, you see icons that indicate you have new mail or social media notifications. Clicking on an icon for that brings up more detail, and dragging straight up unlocks the phone (unless you have a passcode set, in which case it prompts you). The idea is to save on power. In practice, I found I had more battery life left at the end of a typical day with the Moto X than with a Samsung Galaxy S4, so to that extent, it seems to be working.

Another unusual aspect, which is initially available just on AT&T, is the Moto Maker program, which lets you customize the colors of the front and back, pick an accent color for buttons, and add a signature. It's more like customizing a car than anything I've seen with a phone before. I haven't tried this myself, but it's interesting.

From a pure specs perspective, the Moto X is good, but not exceptional. It runs Android 4.2.2, which isn't the latest version but is what most vendors are shipping today. (Note that while Google owns Motorola, this isn't a pure Android or Nexus phone; you still have Motorola and, more prominently, carrier additions.) A year ago the 1.7GHz dual-core processor would have been high-end; today there are faster ones out, but actual performance seems quite good. It seems fast at all the standard things I use a phone for. The base model comes with 16GB of flash, which seems a bit low; and unlike some Android phones, there's no microSD slot for additional memory and it lacks a removable battery. The screen resolution is also lower than some phones. Overall, it seems quite well–built; it is plastic, not metal, but still quite solid and very responsive.

Whether this is the Android phone for you comes down to two things: First, you have to ask whether you need a larger display, or whether one-handed operation is more important. If you really want a big screen, you should look elsewhere.

The second question is whether you want the largest number of features, in which case, offerings from Samsung, HTC, or LG may make more sense. If you only need the basics, plus a few upgrades that work well, such as the always-on voice recognition and the twisting-hand to open the camera, the Moto X is a good buy.

Overall, I'm not quite as enamored with the Moto X as my colleague Sasha Segan is. I like some of the larger phones and have had a bit more trouble with the camera but even so I enjoyed carrying the Moto X. It's fast, fits well into a pocket, and is solidly built, with a few things that make it even more fun. It may well be the best one-handed Android phone available.

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